A new TV show is rapidly extending the reach of the Khmer Rouge war crimes court to Cambodian households.

By Brendan Brady — Special to GlobalPost
Published: November 20, 2009 07:01 ET

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — When the former Khmer Rouge prison chief, Kaing Ghek
Eav, first took the stand eight months ago, most Cambodians had scarce
knowledge of the tribunal that was trying him.

The notorious man — known best by his revolutionary name, Duch — stands
accused of crimes against humanity for the medieval torture of 14,000 people
at a secret prison code-named S-21 during the Khmer Rouge's reign from 1975
to 1979.

At first, 85 percent of Cambodians “had little or no knowledge” of the
U.N.-backed trial that was 30 years in the making, according to a University
of California at Berkeley’s Human Rights Center survey.

Outreach has stepped up considerably since the opening of testimony, though.
Perhaps no development has been more effective in disseminating the
often-baffling work of the tribunal than a new weekly television program. In
a country of 14 million, where 85 percent of people live in rural areas,
some 2 million Cambodians are tuning in to “Duch on Trial.”

Every Monday afternoon, along with fellow Cambodian journalist, Ung Chan
Sophea, host Neth Pheaktra provides a sober summary and analysis of court
testimony and the legal framework in which it is heard. Local analysts weigh
in on the use of legal strategies by the lawyers and Duch.

“My relatives tell me, ‘You look so serious on TV,'” said Neth, whose
program launched in April with British and U.S. funding. “We’re discussing
the death of millions of compatriots, including many of my relatives, so it’s
not a time to smile.”

The show plays clips of court testimony, including ghastly stories of men
and women being bludgeoned, water-boarded and electrocuted before their
execution, and of their babies being smashed against trees.

In total, an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died from overwork, starvation
and murder under the Khmer Rouge’s maniacal vision to transform the country
into an agrarian utopia. For the some 5 million Cambodians who survived
Khmer Rouge rule, the regime’s brutality remains deeply entrenched in their
psyche.

Today, not even half the country's more than 14 million people are over 20
years old, which means they never lived under the regime. Their ignorance of
firsthand atrocities has been compounded by the fact that, until this year,
Khmer Rouge history wasn’t taught in schools. Many current government
officials are former Khmer Rouge cadres and the subject matter remains
highly controversial.

Unlike some other international war crimes courts, the Khmer Rouge tribunal
hasn't had community-based truth and reconciliation committees to extend its
reach to the population.

The hosts of "Duch on Trial" explain how the court is run by Cambodian and
international judges, lawyers and staff. How subordinates and prisoners who
were under Duch’s control and are still alive today provided testimony, and
how the maximum penalty for the five elderly former leaders in detention is
to live out their few remaining years in prison.

For many viewers, such plain talk concentrated into engaging 24-minute
episodes lets them grasp the court’s work for the first time.

“Part of the reason for the show’s popularity is that before there was a big
lack of communication about the tribunal,” said Neth. “So we’re trying to
help fix that.”

The challenge, said Matthew Robinson, the show’s British producer and head
of Khmer Mekong Films, “is how to cram into less than half an hour the
highlights of a week’s worth of the trial that a group of not
legally-sophisticated people can relate to.”

Previously, the bulk of outreach for the tribunal had been shouldered by a
handful of NGOs, such as the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam), the
leading custodian of primary documents on the Khmer Rouge.

Through this non-profit group, 10,000 rural Cambodians have been bussed into
Phnom Penh to attend the tribunal and 300,000 textbooks about the Khmer
Rouge have been distributed to high school classrooms across the country.

The group also makes regular trips to the countryside, assisting people in
filling out paperwork to file evidence to the tribunal of crimes they
witnessed under the regime’s rule and, perhaps more importantly, helping
people simply gain closure by gathering details on the fate of loved ones.

For a man whose sister was tortured and executed at S-21, where Duch
presided, DC-Cam recently tracked down the order of execution signed by
Duch. The man’s reason for filing with the court: “So that she is
remembered,” he wrote.

“The Khmer Rouge left the entire country shattered,” said DC-Cam director
Youk Chhang. “We’re trying to help people connect the broken pieces, and
without people’s involvement the court is meaningless.”

The court’s own outreach has also been reinvigorated. Since June, hearings
that were previously attended by scant crowds of a couple dozen people began
to see audiences numbering in the hundreds.

Reach Sambath, whose takeover of public affairs at the court coincided with
this boom, attributed some part of the rising numbers to the nature of
dialogue in the courtroom. The stories of real witnesses caught the
attention of lay people, who found the early procedural hearings hard to
follow.

“The testimony was very emotional,” said Reach. “Duch cried. Then the
witnesses cried. Then the audience cried. And then I cried. Seeing this is
part of the healing process.”

Reach also initiated announcements about the court on local radio stations —
a move that had his office inundated with phone calls asking how to attend.

“Before it was difficult for people to have trust in the court,” he says.
“But if seeing is believing, then coming to the court in person has people
feeling that justice is being provided.”

While such emotionally charged moments provided the catharsis the tribunal
wanted to stage, in a country where some 90 percent of the population
regularly views television — despite enormous poverty — the tube has proven
the most efficient channel for engaging people in the war crimes court.

“It’s easy and interesting to learn about the tribunal this way,” said
51-year-old No Min, who lives in a remote village in the province of Kampong
Cham where road access is limited and newspapers are scarce. “I’ve learned
more about the [court’s] process and it seems fair.”

“I tell the younger kids in the village to come watch the show with me so
they can learn about an important part of history that is easy to want to
forget.”